...
Following Thursday's disastrous flying lesson, Rodrick and the rest had wound up spending the most of their evening in the library. The group electing to make a few attempts at studying their next potion assignment, followed by a mounting headache at his friend's...
It'd be rude to call it incompetence... and he'd be a liar if he called it otherwise.
At any rate, following the several failed attempts, and Blaise effectively leaving to ... likely enjoy himself elsewhere, Rodrick had decided to call the session a resounding success. Presuming the goal of the endeavour was to convince him to never become a teacher.
The two girls however had elected to stay behind, for whatever reason, instead telling him they'd catch up in the Great Hall.
He'd been just outside said hall when he'd once again run into Blaise. Or more specifically, Blaise had pulled him aside,out of view from everyone inside, just as he'd been about to enter. The aroma of the food inside barely filling his nostrils before the taller Slytherin had unceremoniously grabbed him to the side.
He idly wondered if Blaise wanted to know how close he'd gotten himself to winding up in the infirmary. The boy had been lucky he'd seen him first.
Idly letting his wand slip back up his sleeve, Rodrick feigned a deadpan look as he stared at his friend.
"There are easier (safer) ways to get someone's attention Blaise," He couldn't help the drawl, crossing his arms in the process. "So, what's up with you?"
He wouldn't say the boy's face screamed panic, or worry... Though there was the barest hint of a crease to ite.
"It's about Malfoy," The other eventually stated, his gaze turning left to right, almost as if he feared they were currently been listened in into.
With a shrug, Rorick silently covered them in a silencing charm, though Blaise didn't seem to pick up on it.
"He's convinced Potter to show up for a duel,"
Rodrick blinked, unsure how, or even why, he ought to care about such a thing. His modified face was evidently easy to read given Blaise had picked up on that.
"For midnight."
"Past curfew?"
Blaise nodded once at the question, his words turning silent as Rodrick narrowed his eyes in thought. While dueling itself wasn't exactly frowned upon- If anything, it might've been encouraged. According to the Hogwarts rules however, they were heavily regulated. And a midnight duel didn't sound very official.
"So he doesn't plan to show up? And what? Potter loses a few house points for been out of bounds and out of hours?"
"Or he get's expelled."
"Dumbledore isn't going to expel the Boy-Who-Lived. Come on, Blaise, use your brain. He'll probably give him a light slap on the wrist and have him swear to never do it again,"
"Maybe, but if Potter loses house points, and, Slytherin finds out it was because of Malfoy?"
Rodrick blinked. His gaze loosening the slightest as he realised what exactly it was Blaise was currently worried about.
"Influence. That's what he's after,"
Blaise nodded.
"Huh... Funnily enough, Nott of all people warned me about that."
"...I could've told you that- I am pretty sure a mud-" Blaise seemed to hesistate the slightest at the use of the word, his gaze lingering on him as he searched for some sort of reaction. Though Rodrick, admittedly enough, wasn't really paying attention. "-muggleborn could've told you that! Malfoy's hungry when it comes to anything remotely resembling power."
"...Well, one does want what they lack most," Rodrick supposed.
Blaise however, on hearing that, elected to snort in response.
"...What did I say?" He questioned, bemused at the sudden reaction. Though before Blaise could answer him, the two of them promptly turned their heads at the sounds of footsteps echoing towards them. Their gazes landing on his other two friends.
Silently, he undid the silencing charm surrounding him and Blaise.
Rodrick, as they reached them, chose that moment to start walking into the hall. Blaise, begrudgingly on his heel.
"And? Are we- you going to do anything about it? Silence runs the risk of letting him gain a foothold into the house-"
"What are you guys talking about?" Tracey Davis chose that moment to join in.
"Nothing you need to worry abo-" Blaise had started with, only for his tongue seemed to still itself as he locked gazes with the red-head. Which was fair given an influential Malfoy definitely effected her.
When Tracey turned towards him- While Daphne elected for drilling a glare into Blaise's skull, presumably, for daring to deny her friend information.
Honestly, how was he supposedto know how to read their expressions? It wasn't like the orphanage where the only hidden emotions belonged to their skeletal horror of a caretaker. Presuming that she-demon had any to begin with.
Still, the moment Tracey's eyes directed her question towards him, Rodrick merely shrugged as he walked inside the hall.
"Sabotage," He whispered, earning a wide-eyed look, as he made a beeline for the Slytherin table.
Particularly where Malfoy was currently seated. The blonde boy's gleeful expression momentarily changing with every passing second as he locked gazes with him, personally. The blonde, and his sycophants, watched him like a hawk as he approached their side of the table.
His peripheral, on the other hand, noted the mostly filled hall with his own, hidden, glee. With even the professor's table over half-full. Though both his own head-house and the headmaster were missing.
It was, after all a particularly special occasion. A first year, for the first time in Hogarts history, had been allowed on one of the House teams. A truly unprecedented event!
Particularly because it was against the rules, but that was neither here nor there. Literally. No one seemed to give a damn about the fact Hogwarts faculty quite literally, in everyone's face, bended the rules around their new favourite student. It didn't help the fact that it involved Potter himself, who was already a celebrity.
Honestly, what kind of message where they trying to send?
Still, the legality, or morality- hell, even the ethics, of it all aside, he was just glad the hall had plenty of witnesses.
If there was one thing he'd learned so far, it was that plots tended to only work if they started and stayed hidden.
It seemed Malfoy had yet to learn that, given Blaise had somehow found out.
Reaching the aforementioned blonde's side of the table, Rodrick flashed him a set of teeth and gave a warm greeting. The action earning him a set of narrowed eyes and a different, less-smirky, expression from the blonde.
An improvement, if he was honest with himself.
"Heard you and Potter have yourselves a midnight duel!"
It was admittedly satisfying watching the blonde momentarily change shades.
"How'd you get a professor to allow that?"
Needless to say, given the sudden movements from the faculty table- to both, his and the Gryffindor's table, Rodrick was fairly confident the duel, and point loss (at least for that) wasn't going to go through after all.
Still, if only to make sure no Slytherin points were lost, Rodrick practically extended an olive branch out to the seething blonde.
"You do know that you need a professor's approval for a duel, right?"
"..." And for a moment, Rodrick genuinely thought the blonde was about to curse him, or call him out for another illegal duel-
Yet, to his shock, a mollified expression took over the blonde's instead. The boy turning his eyes away the slightest as he, begrudgingly, stated he wasn't aware of such a rule.
Just in time too, given Fillius Flitwick had been within earshot of the blonde's admission.
His thoughts on Malfoy's peculiar behaviour aside, he idly wondered how Severus Snape would've reacted, had he been in the hall instead.
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